2024-02-23

Sphere, Las Vegas, NV

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"Zoo Station"
"The Fly"
"Even Better Than the Real Thing"
"Mysterious Ways"
"One"
"Until the End of the World"
"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
"Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World"
"All I Want is You"
"Desire"
"When Love Comes to Town"
"Love Rescue Me"
"Acrobat"
"So Cruel"
"Ultra Violet (Light My Way)"
"Love is Blindness"

Encore:

"Elevation"
"Atomic City"
"Vertigo"
"Where the Streets Have No Name"
"With or Without You"
"Beautiful Day"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Lemon" (Remix) - U2
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Glorify" - U2 featuring Brittany Howard
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "What A Wonderful World" - Louis Armstrong
Pre-Recorded Intermission Song(s): "Viva Las Vegas" - Elvis Presley

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

"Love Me Tender" (Elvis Presley) / "Paint it Black" (Rolling Stones) / "Landlady" (U2) / "Into the Mystic" (Van Morrison) / "Viva Las Vegas" (Elvis Presley) / "My Way" (Frank Sinatra) / "Moment of Surrender" (U2) / "Gloria" (U2) / "Blackbird" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

(This article is about a show which has recently ended, and will be updated with additional information as available. Due to a lack of streams out of the venue last night, information in this entry is not complete, and may be updated as more information comes to light. If you are going tonight and wish to try your hand at Mixlr, give us a shout.)

This is U2’s 37th show at Sphere in Las Vegas. The full listing of shows can be found in our show archive. These shows will be played without Larry Mullen who is healing from surgery to repair years of damage from drumming. U2 will once again be joined onstage by Bram van den Berg for these shows. Today the band have been publicizing this as one of the final four shows at Sphere, and have posted a “thank you Las Vegas” video montage on the outside of Sphere, and on their socials, featuring footage from shows, and of their fans.

Tonight’s show is being filmed. Both tonight and tomorrow night’s show will be filmed, which means we expect the same set list will be in use for both nights. As well the use of snippets will be minimized throughout the show, but some of the bigger ones will be kept as they are integral to the show. Tonight for instance, instead of “I Feel Love” Bono kept to a more generic “love love love”. But bigger snippets such as “Viva Las Vegas” and “Into the Mystic” at the end of “All I Want is You” are in place. The middle turntable section is Rattle and Hum based with the band performing “All I Want is You”, “Desire”, “When Love Comes to Town” and “Love Rescue Me”. Additionally the Elvis version of “Viva Las Vegas” is used during the intermission tonight.

Additional cameras are seen everywhere. There are special cameras to capture footage for Sphere at the back of GA, and to either side, and these are also seen in the vicinity of the sound board. Additional traditional cameras are also spotted throughout the building. Bono stops the show after “All I Want is You” to share that the night is being filmed for later. “So this is the show that people will see after we go home. As a matter of fact, in the future people will watch us, watching you, watching us. I don’t know if you can do this, but if everyone on the floor turns around and faces that way you can give the future a wave. Just turn around. Edge, you’re from the future, you have a message for the people?” Bono points out where the cameras are behind the crowd as he gets them to turn around. The Edge shares “Just getting to the future would be a good thing.”

Early in the show, at the start of “Even Better than the Real Thing” Bono is questioning where he is and who the band are. “I know you. You’re the Edge. I know you, you’re Adam. And you. you feel very familiar. Wham bam thank you Bram…” Indeed, thank you Bram. For those who have attended these shows, and for those have listened along at home, thank you for stepping in to “save their arses”. I cannot imagine what a high it must be playing with a band you’ve been a fan of for years, night after night. Bono also shares, “hello hello! how are you? Welcome to U2:UV at the Sphere. Where science serves art in the pursuit of a good time in Las Vegas on a Friday night. If this is Las Vegas.” One of the recent highlights of the show has been Bono’s falsetto at the start of “One” and it’s lovely tonight. The ‘lost key’ segment is shorter tonight. “Have you seen my keys? Willie? Joe? Have you seen my keys? Got a balloon,” and then Bono returns to the song, later asking, “I’ll leave it. I’ll leave the balloon. Is that OK?”

Ahead of “All I Want is You” Bono speaks about the stage and how it has arrived from a turntable design by Brian Eno. “We might even be inside Brian’s head. Beautiful orb, Brian’s head.” After “All I Want is You” he starts introductions tonight with The Edge calling him a “weapon of mass devotion”. Bram is introduced next, “He’s too tall. He’s too good looking, the flying, while sitting in for Larry Mullen Junior Dutchman, Bram van den berg. Saved our arse. Thank you.” Adam Clayton also gets a glowing introduction, “Look who we go to work with. The first manager of U2. The first person to believe we might have a future to manage. On the bass, his royal flushness, Lord Adam Charles Clayton.” and Bono then returns to The Edge “In a town full of magicians, an actual alchemist turning our shite into gold.” Bono introduces himself at the end as well, sharing “At the center of attention, if you aren’t talking about him you aren’t listening, mouth almighty, a giant in his own mind. On the vocals, Bono Vox.”

“Vertigo” opens with “Unos, dos, helicopteroes…” tonight. Bono’s been using it for a number of weeks now and it appears to have stuck. Those in seats get a little extra ‘helicopter’ as the haptic seats have been turned on in the venue a few weeks back, and are in use for “Zoo Station”, “Until the End of the World” and “Vertigo”. As the helicopters fly by overhead you feel them if seated.

At the end of “With or Without You” Bono stops to thank the audience. “Thank you for taking care of this band for so long. Thank you. Will you sing us home.”

Other snippets, not mentioned above, include “Love Me Tender” at the end of “One”, and “Paint it Black” during “Until the End of the World” (“Sympathy for the Devil” is not heard tonight.) U2’s own “Landlady” is heard in the introduction to “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”. “My Way” comes in at the end of “Elevation”, and “Moment of Surrender” leads into “Where the Streets Have No Name”. U2’s own “Gloria” appears as a snippet during “Beautiful Day” as does “Blackbird”. Because of the eventual release of this evening’s performance as a film, it will be much easier if Bono avoids snippets from other artists, but a few do make it in, and many of the snippets tonight are of their own songs. (Please note, the list of snippets may be incomplete.)

Stewart Copeland of the Police is at the show this evening, as is Mike McCready of Pearl Jam. Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos are in the audience at tonight’s show as well. Ripa posted video from outside and inside Sphere to her Instagram this evening, including Bono’s “Wham bam thank you Bram” and calling the show “truly indescribable” while her husband posted a photo of meeting Adam Clayton at a meet and greet ahead of the show.

This is one of four shows announced on December 4, 2023 to finish off the run of shows. Ticket requests for U2.Com subscribers opened immediately and were open until December 5, at 10pm PT. Subscribers are eligible to request again even if they have requested before, or have purchased tickets before. A general onsale happened on Friday December 8. Ticket packages were immediately available via Vibee. Ticket pricing at face value included GA Floor at $267.88, seats ranging from $140.13 to $501.35, and (RED) Zone tickets at $600. During all general sales, most tickets were raised in price due to Platinum pricing with the exception of Floor and (RED) Zone.

Officially Released Tracks